From the perspective of taking care of public spaces, I absolutely agree that it is a great cultural attitude. People are ingrained from youth to understand that other people are cleaning the spaces you exist in, they are not lesser for doing those jobs, and it’s a core cultural belief that you shouldn’t inconvenience others even if you don’t know them; this attitude makes public spaces feel very pleasant and contributes to the cleanliness and safety that most who visit Japan come to admire.
That said I don’t think that Japan is exempt from foisting their garbage onto third world countries as was posited in the article. Once it’s in the trash system you’re just as equally not taking responsibility for the waste you generate. While the public spaces are clean, Japan is also renowned for using a lot of unnecessary single use plastics, and people don’t really take responsibility for that.
Caveat: some of those garbage cans are for can recycling only. But there is often another one for garbage like food wrappers.
Import games arrive in tiny boxes with almost no packaging and manuals that have been design like origami inserts to take up only the tiny remaining space available.
When you do your garbage there's a box called "moeru" (burnable) and there is a crapload of plastic in there.
That said, Japanese packaging is also an art. Both can be true at the same time.
Apparently the view is that if society wanted them to keep the earth clean, they would have set out more garbage cans.
Now people in Japan just put their trash in the streets. It piles up and early in the morning everything is cleaned.
I especially appreciated the connection of the personal responsibility for one's waste to "adulting" in general. (you know it's problematic when a word had to be invented for not remaining a perpetual petulant child, which is assumed to be the default behaviour)
Another aspect that really follows immediately for accepting one's garbage responsibility: maybe don't buy all that shit from corporate vendors in the first place?
That's another Japanese tradition: pack your own lunch in a reusable container.
Of course, that's also not a part of the internet brain damaged era...
Most garbage was compactible and clean enough that I could stuff it into my garbage pocket (to the dismay of my girlfriend). Larger or dirtier items, I would put into a ziplock bag in my backpack that I carried with me everywhere. Public trash receptacles, while rarer than in North America, could be found often enough if you were observant of your surroundings.
"The modern condition consists of a constant self-infantilization, of any number of “non-adulting” activities. The main being, of course, plugging into a dopamine casino right before going to sleep and right upon waking up. At least a morning cigarette habit in 1976 gave one time to look at the world in front of one’s eyes (and a gentle nicotine buzz). Other non-adulting activities include relinquishment of general attention, concentration, and critical thinking capabilities. The desire for deus ex machina style political intercession that belies the complexities of real-world systems. Easy answers, easy solutions to problems of unfathomable scale. Scientific retardation because it “feels” good. Deliverance — deliverance! — now, with as little effort as possible."
Ever go out at 3am? Rats and trash everywhere.
Squeaky clean by morning though, their cleaners are amazing.
Lack of trash cans is because of sarin attacks, nothing else.
So they just put the trash in the street.
